For Jour 3101 Spring 2008

Kenya continues to spiral out of control

Melitus Mugabe Were, a prominent Kenyan Parliament member who had been attempting to organize a peace march, was shot to death on Tuesday by unknown assailants reports the BBC.

The situation intensified Wednesday when police shot tear gas canisters into the parliament member's compound where supporters had congregated to mourn his death. The police allegedly fired the irritant to subdue a group of about 50 young people who had assembled road blocks of burning tires and stone barricades, but television footage shows the police firing the gas directly into the crowd of mourners at the compound the BBC reported later.

Since Were had been working against the politics of President Mwai Kibaki, the anger of his mourners was directed at the president and his police.